Gabe gets an unexpected (by him, anyway) shot at redemption when he reluctantly assists on a distress call, which turns out to be a gang of thieves attempting to recover millions of dollars they’ve lost in the mountains. As it happens, this is Gabe’s best friend Hal (Michael Rooker) and Hal’s girlfriend Sarah (Michelle Joyner) – who falls to her death following a mishap that Gabe is unable to prevent. In Cliffhanger, this man is Gabe Walker (the nondescript name being the first clue that Stallone’s authorship on this thing may have been diluted), a ranger who, in the film’s sweaty-palmed opening sequence, attempts to rescue a couple stranded on a mountain peak. Perhaps not coincidentally, both this movie and Demolition Man feature a character who has been chastened (for attempted valor, of course, not a genuine moment of weakness), removed from his chosen field and eventually vindicated by his extra-mile heroism and refusal to quit.
By the standards of his then-recent comedies or dead-end ’80s sequels, Cliffhanger is a fastball straight down the middle, despite the considerable handicap of being co-written by Stallone himself. But it did arguably kick off his final run of maybe-kinda-sorta normal movies. It wouldn’t be the last time Stallone would bring himself back from the brink. 30 years ago, 1993 saw one of his biggest, as Stallone ascended from the zany-comedy hell of Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot to the peaks of Cliffhanger and, later that year, Demolition Man. Plenty of actors’ fortunes ebb and flow over the years, but Stallone rivals his paison (and one-time collaborator) John Travolta for the sheer number of comebacks he’s attempted, and often pulled off. This sentiment should already be lurking somewhere in the back of John Spartan’s made-up head, because he is played by Sylvester Stallone, an actor who has integrated underdog stories, victory laps and comebacks into the full-body workout of his career. “Not many people get a second chance, John Spartan,” someone tells the lead character in Demolition Man, a tough-guy cop from 1996 unfrozen in 2032.
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